Lewis Hamilton claims “there’s still all to play for” in Sunday’s Russian Grand Prix after Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg beat him to pole position at Sochi.
The championship leader never looked like a genuine threat to his title rival, who completed a clean sweep in qualifying. Hamilton did not even try to attempt a final flying lap following a mistake at Turn 13 on his second Q3 run. Two weeks ago, the Briton also lined up P2 on the grid but was able to muscle his way past pole sitter Rosberg over the opening sequence of corners before sailing to victory.
“I have no choice but to be second right now, Nico did a better job in qualifying,” said Hamilton. “But I feel there’s still all to play for as you’ve seen in any of the other races where I started second. It makes the race even more exciting.
“It’s a long way down to Turn 1, probably the longest one of all the year, so it should create opportunity. But there’ll be still other opportunities throughout the race as well.”
Mercedes, which can wrap up the Constructors’ title this weekend, approached the Sochi event not knowing whether Pirelli’s soft and supersofts would give it as much trouble as these had done in Singapore last month.
Despite very limited running in representative conditions across free practice, the championship leaders once again were in a league of their own in qualifying. While Hamilton admits the whole picture remains unclear, the 30-year-old remains confident ahead of the grand prix, based on the data he and his team have been able to collect so far.
“Coming into the weekend people were making assumptions that we’ll have a repeat of Singapore. I had no idea what it was going to be like. To think that this is the other way round, it’s very strange. I don’t have an answer for it.
“The car felt good otherwise on the tyres today. I don’t know how it will be for the race but from my short long runs – seven laps but we have to take information from that – it did not feel bad.”
Rosberg beats Hamilton to Sochi pole
AS IT HAPPENED: Russian Grand Prix qualifying
Gallery: Carlos Sainz's crash in FP3
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